Sunday, October 25, 2015

Since the fall in
the Garden of Eden, the world has been the very opposite of what it was created
to be. It fell from being a paradise,
becoming instead a war zone. Conflict is
everywhere. Man fell out of favor with
God, men fell to other men, and even the natural world fell into becoming a
bloody place of predators and prey.

The red on our
altar and in our sanctuary today is, in part, a reminder of this, because red
is the color of bloodshed. Red is the
color of martyrdom. And indeed, red is
the color of the Reformation.

The Reformation was
a sad and sorrowful time of violence.
The areas in Germany where the reforms were first being made in the
churches became places of violence, places of conflict, places of bloodshed.

Confessors of the
faith, pastors and lay people alike, were imprisoned and put to death. Families were devastated. Books were
burned. The peasants had a bloody
revolt, and the princes put it down with vicious cruelty. Governments were
overthrown. Armies clashed in the fields
as the emperor tried to force Lutherans back under the pope at the point of a
sword – something we today associate more with radical Islam than with the
religion of the Prince of Peace.

Although today we
remember the incident of Martin Luther quietly nailing an academic paper to the
church door, something that was nothing more than an ordinary debate between
Latin-speaking scholars at a remote university, the fallout of this event would
change the world. Dr. Luther’s paper was
translated and published. Ordinary
people were reading it. And before long,
the streets would run red with the blood of people from every walk of life who
believed that salvation is by grace alone, through faith, and that the bishops
of the church were under the authority of the Bible, and not the other way
around.

And yet, in
remembrance of this monstrous time of bloodshed, our church is bedecked in the
festive color of red, and we are celebrating.
To be sure, we do not celebrate cruelty or war, violence or bloodshed. Christians are lovers of peace, even as our
Lord is the Prince of Peace. But we do celebrate courage and steadfastness,
faithfulness, and the witness of the testimony of the saints who loved the
kingdom of God more than they loved their dear life’s-blood itself. For at no point in history has the Church’s
life in this fallen world been peaceful. Christian blood has run from our veins
and dyed the earth red since the very beginning of the Church. And all of the
enemies of the cross, outside the church and inside, all who have sought to
muzzle the Gospel, have ended up in ruin.
But yet, as St. Peter the apostle wrote, citing Isaiah, “The grass withers,
and the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord remains forever.”

The armies who defended the Lutheran territories from the pope’s armies had the
letters VDMA on their flags, Latin for: “Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum: the
Word of the Lord endures forever.” For
as all Christians know, all flesh is indeed like the grass. It is like a flower. Like all things in our broken world,
everything is temporary, everything except the Word of God. And that Word is worth dying for, and it is
worth living for. For the Word-made-flesh
Himself died to give us life. And He,
Jesus, is the heart of the confession that makes people so angry and filled
with hatred and rage so as to want to spill our blood.

As our Lord said:
“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered
violence, and the violent take it by force.”
We are a sinful people who are never happy. We grumbled at John the Baptist for not
eating and drinking. We grumbled at
Jesus for eating and drinking. We beheaded John. We crucified Jesus. We are most certainly poor, miserable sinners
for whom Christ died.

And indeed, the red
in our sanctuary stands for the blood of the saints and martyrs, but also for
the blood of the One whose blood sets us free from death itself: the blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of Him who saved us.

For our Lord’s
blood ran from His veins at the cross, and His blood covered the whole world’s
sins. This is the confession of our forbears who would at some point be called
“Lutherans” by their attackers. Being
saved from sin, death, and the devil is free – it is a gift. You don’t need a pope to interpret or even mangle
the words of the Bible. You don’t need
to buy an indulgence or attempt to earn your way into the kingdom of
heaven. For the kingdom of heaven
suffers violence whenever the work of our Lord on the cross is minimized or
obscured by false doctrine or by false prophets.

It took Dr. Luther and the so-called Lutherans to remind the world what the
Word of God actually says: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be
received by faith…. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the
works of the law.”

Dear friends, this is not some kind of “Lutheran” doctrine, it is the Christian
faith in a nutshell. It is the Word of
the Lord, and it endures forever. It is the Gospel testified to by the blood of
every holy martyr, including the holy confessors of the Reformation.

For just as the
grass withers and the flower fades, and just as all flesh is grass, everything
in this fallen world is temporary, dear brothers and sisters. The things we love and hold so dear are all temporary:
our homes, our country, our vehicles, our friendships, our hobbies, our
heirlooms, our treasures – all of it.

Bloodshed is also temporary
and will cease, as swords will be beaten into plowshares. Conflict is temporary and will cease, as the
lion will lie down with the lamb. Sin,
death, and the devil are temporary and will cease, as the Lord Jesus Christ
defeated all three by His own death upon the cross, and promises to cast them
all into the lake of fire.

And that victory,
the victory of the cross, belongs to you, dear friends, to each one of you who
have been baptized and who believe this Gospel.
That victory is a free gift. For the word “Gospel” simply means “good
news.” The war has been won. The enemy has been defeated. Our own sinful flesh that is in rebellion has
been recreated anew by the flesh and blood of the Savior. And He speaks to us
today in His Word that endures forever, and His flesh becomes your flesh
through eating and drinking of the Lord’s Supper: His very body and blood given
and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and eternal
communion with the Triune God, with angels and archangels, and with all the
company of heaven.

And so, yes, dear
friends, we are so bold as to celebrate, even festively decorating our church
in the red of the blood of our fallen brothers and sisters. For that blood is also Christ’s blood,
spilled for our behalf and given to us in a saving communion with the One who
created a perfect conflict-free world in the beginning, and who has saved us by
that same blood at the cross, paying for something that we could never earn or
afford, and sharing it with us free of charge right here in this sanctuary.

And He promises us
an even greater Reformation: the reforming of heaven and earth, one that will
endure forever. Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Once more, dear
brothers and sisters, we have heard the account of our origin, of the world’s
origin, of the universe’s origin, from the very Word of God itself, from the
Word Himself. For there was a beginning,
and there was a creation. There is a
Creator, and there are creatures. God
created time and matter and energy from nothing, and the will of God created the
laws of the universe, by which all things move and have their being. Our existence is purposeful, meaningful, and
holy.

The Creator,
moreover, is no mad scientist, no tinkerer. He is a Father. He loves His creation, even to the point of
granting us freedom: freedom to love Him or reject Him. He created matter and energy and time, and set
them into motion according to the laws of nature. But He gave us minds by which we can act with
a will of our own. We are free to love
God, and we are free to reject our Creator, even to the point of
self-destruction.

Dear friends, we
all know what happened with our first parents in that “very good” creation,
that perfect creation. We invited
disharmony and discord. We invited
disease and disfigurement. We invited
death and damnation.

And with that He was wounded with the cruelest blow of all, with betrayal and
unrequited love, with treason and treachery. And yet, nevertheless, He loves
us.

The world hears
this and laughs, mocks, rages, and hates. The world patronizingly pats us on the head as
though we believe in genies in lamps and leprechauns in the woods, but it rages
against us with raw hatred and maliciously seeks to cut off our heads. Our brothers and sisters are, at this very
moment across the world that God created, suffering in lonely cold prison
cells, being tortured, being beheaded, and worse. Even here in a liberal, free, civilized
society, Christians are jailed for conscientious objection to rulings that defy
the laws of nature and the laws of the people. Christians are subjected to brutal and cruel fines
from unelected commissioners who have admitted that they are motivated by
hatred. Christians are gunned down
methodically in schools. All the while,
those who hate us mock us and assure us that we are not being persecuted.

Tell that to confessors Pastor Saied Abedini and Mrs. Asia Bibi – for whom we
have been praying for years. Tell that
to confessors Aaron and Melissa Klein.
Tell that to the nine martyred students at Umpqua Community College who
were shot after confessing their Christian faith.

The betrayal that
we feel at the hands of our fellow men, whom we love and for whom we pray, is a
small taste of the cross of our Lord, whom we betray by our sins, whom we deny
when it is inconvenient to confess, whom we ignore when we look for other gods to
serve.

And yet, dear
friends, in spite of our sins, in spite of our betrayals, in spite of our
persecution of Jesus Himself, He endures the shame of the cross; He suffers death;
He permits His dead body to be sown into the earth like a seed. And that seed, the Seed of the Woman, blasted
through the shell of the tomb, like a plant-yielding seed, that is for us, the
very Tree of Life. He rises from the
death we deserve, even as He shed the blood we ought to have shed.

This, dear brothers and sisters, is the meaning of the miracle of the healing
of the son of the official of Capernaum. For officials understand the power of the
word. One little word with the seal of an important enough official can give
life to a condemned prisoner, or send an innocent man to his own execution. But this official at Capernaum knew that all
the signatures and seals and fancy parchments in the world were powerless to save
a dying son.

This official goes to where true power resides and is wielded, to the One who
has more than a fancy letterhead or luxurious robes of royalty. This official of Capernaum has true faith, for
he knows that he is powerless in the face of death, but knows One who is to
defeat death and the grave: Jesus. This
man prays. He asks the Christ: “Sir,
come down before my child dies.” And the
man “believed the Word.”

For Jesus is the
Word. “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “In the beginning God created...” “And God said, ‘Let there be… and there was…’”

Our Lord Jesus is not
a creature, but the Creator. He is not the word that is spoken, but the Word
that speaks.

He came to set the tottering creation right. He came to heal the broken universe. He came to restore harmony: peace between God
and man, between man and man, and between man and nature. He came to love us even though we are
unlovable. He does not betray us, though
we betray Him. He comes to hold out the
olive branch from the nail-pierced hand of God Himself, so that we might find
not just requited love, but unconditional and eternal love.

“Go; your son will
live” – even as the Son of God likewise lives, though He was crucified.

Jesus has come to
give His life as a ransom for the world. Nobody is excluded from the Father’s grace. Though
“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” He “so loved the world,
that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have eternal life.” And yet, even then, most people opt out of the gift.

Many find the
creation account repulsive. Many refuse
to believe in objective truth as we Christians confess. Many simply hate us
because they hate Christ – and as Jesus asks, can a disciple be above his
teacher? If they crucified Christ, how
can we expect to be treated by the world?

How has the world treated the confessors Pastor Saied Abedini and Mrs. Asia Bibi?
How has the world treated the confessors
Aaron and Melissa Klein? How has the
world treated the nine martyred students at Umpqua Community College who were shot
after confessing their Christian faith?

Dear friends, it is not an easy thing to be a Christian. St. Paul encourages us to “put on the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” For our fight is a spiritual fight. Behind the madmen with bullets and fanatics
with swords and malicious bureaucrats with power to levy fines are “spiritual
forces of evil.” We must look past our
comfortable modern American lifestyle to see, with the eyes of faith, the
pitched battle being waged in the world that we confess in the creed that is “invisible.”

Gird yourself with truth, dear friends.
Never give in to the lie. Wear
the breastplate of righteousness, never fight this battle in an unrighteous
way. Shoe your feet by means of the
readiness of the Gospel, a Gospel of peace, and never forget that we are the people
of peace and the people of good news. Don’t
neglect to shield yourself, dear friends, not with anything in this material
world, but with faith, faith in Christ, the faith of the official of Capernaum
and his household who believed. Wear as
a crown for your head the salvation given to you as a gift, and avoid the
temptation to be crowned with the worldly honor of this crooked generation. And do not forget, dear friends, your one
offensive weapon in this spiritual warfare, your sword, the sword of the
Spirit, the very Word of God.

We know what that
Word is, what that Word says, and most importantly of all, who that Word is. He is the Word who created us, the Word who
redeems us, the Word who declares us righteous, the Word who loves us, heals
us, saves us, and recreates the universe anew.

“In the beginning
was the Word…” Amen.

In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Wednesday, October 07, 2015

God invites all of
mankind to a feast, and our sinful flesh thinks we have better things to do. There are other feasts: parties, festivals,
sports events, rest and relaxation, flashing screens and shiny things, or even
just staying in bed.

Why does our sinful flesh behave this way?

One would think
that free food would entice us, or perhaps the opportunity to be near the king.
Of course, if nothing else there is a
political advantage, and the opportunity to be seen. Even in the world, if the boss throws a party,
we are wise enough to attend, or at least put in an appearance.

Indeed, the
invitation should get our attention: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the
waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price…. Delight yourselves in rich food.”

It sounds like the
opportunity of a lifetime, or even of eternity. God Himself is offering to throw an eternal
and magnificent banquet, and admits us to the head table. And in the case of this banquet, it includes a
complete pardon of every sin we have ever committed in this life; it includes
citizenship in the kingdom of God and fellowship with God Himself.

And yet, the
excuses for not showing up are legion. They
are also weak and unconvincing. For the
real reason people turn down the offer is that they think they can hold the
ticket in their back pockets and use it any time. Meanwhile, there is fun to be had and a self
to serve. For in the minds of the sinful
flesh, wisdom can wait. Now is the time
to walk unwisely, “because the days are evil.” There is time to be foolish, to “get drunk with
wine” and “debauchery” or with any number of hobbies and diversions from God’s
gracious invitation. For there will
always be time later for “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” and “submitting
to one another out of reverence for Christ.” I am baptized, and therefore, I can repent
later, so says the sinful flesh.

The prophet Isaiah
warns us: “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near;
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him
return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He
will abundantly pardon.”

For the sinful flesh ignores the invitation. It refuses to come to be where the
Lord invites us to be. The sinful flesh
focuses upon the self instead of the Savior, paying mind to the clock instead
of the cross. The sinful flesh is even
capable of murdering the prophets and treating the king’s messengers shamefully.

And to those who refuse to repent, the King becomes angry. He eventually revokes the invitation and sends
forth the Spirit to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify others into His holy
Christian Church, those who participate in the wedding feast of the Son through
all eternity. God calls others instead
of those who continue to harden their hearts. Some of the refuseniks even become violent:
murdering the prophets, shooting up schools and churches, mangling the institution
of marriage, killing children and planning the profits of the sale of their yet
beating hearts over glasses of wine.

The Lord sends His
servants to the main roads, gathering in those who repent, who heed the call of
the Gospel, those who are baptized and saved and participating in the pardoning
feast of the Lord’s Supper, hearing the prophetic word, and enjoying a seat at
the head table with the Lamb and the Ancient of Days and the Spirit, reigning
with them unto all eternity.

And so here we are,
dear friends. It may not look to the
eyes like a grand banquet hall, but that is exactly what it is. It is a sanctuary, an embassy of heaven. We gather here around a bowl of water, a
lectern, a pulpit, and a table with wafers of bread and a cup of wine that we
share. It is not course after course of
decadent and expensive foods, and yet it is the richest meal in history: the
body of Christ. It is not the most expensive
and exclusive of drinks, but it is the choicest of all in the universe, for it
is the blood of Christ.

The banquet starts here, but it never ends.
It begins in time, but will continue into eternity. To the eyes of the world it looks like a
pathetic affair: a handful of people with aches and pains and ailments hobbling
to a wooden rail to be hand-fed a tiny piece of bread and poured a sip of wine
by a guy in what looks like robes. Some
words are said. An old book is
read.

But what a banquet this is, dear friends! For God Almighty, the Creator and King of the
universe, is here with us physically and intimately in space and time, joining
us at this table, which by His presence, becomes the head table, the Holy of Holies,
the divine throne. He declares us
forgiven and worthy by the cross and the empty tomb, to be regarded as
righteous and able to sit with God at a never-ending feast. He fills us with food that always satisfies,
and drink that always slakes. He
transforms us by His mighty Word and by His ever-present transformative Spirit.
He packs His banquet hall even with the
likes of us, “both bad and good,” forgiven sinners, redeemed saints, men,
women, and children from every walk of life.

And for us men and
for our salvation, He has prepared His dinner, dear friends. The Lamb Himself has been slaughtered, and He
is risen! The bread of life has come
down from heaven. His flesh is bread for
the life of the world. By His Word, we
are made alive. By His stripes we are
healed. By His cross we are reconciled.

And though His
thoughts are not our thoughts, nor our ways His ways, and though the heavens
are higher than the earth, and though His ways and thoughts exceed ours, He has
nevertheless filled His heavenly banquet hall with us, dear friends, with each
one of us, with believers of every time and place, with angels, archangels, and
all the company of heaven.

We are at this
banquet because we have been invited. We
wear the baptismal garment. We have been
called. We have been chosen. And this is why, dear friends, we can receive
this admonition from St. Paul with joy: “Look carefully then how you walk, not
as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are
evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but
understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is
debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your
heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Our sinful flesh has been crucified with Christ. We have been invited, the bad and the good,
we are clothed with the wedding garment, we are here to buy and eat, without
money and without price. Welcome to the
feast, dear brothers and sisters, now and even unto eternity! Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.

Translate this page

Why Father Hollywood?

While serving in a previous ministerial call, I had to moonlight at the local Hollywood Video to pay for health insurance for the family. It took one of my coworkers a couple weeks before she stopped addressing me as "Father" and started using my first name.
It was a fun job. My co-workers were the best. I got free rentals too. You can click here to see a picture. Now you know the rest of the story...